Sunday, March 7, 2010

Golden Sweet Cornbread

I have been meaning to post this since, well, since the jam post, but it was a fun and busy weekend, and the weather has been really nice (near 60* today! woohoo!), so I haven't been on the computer much.

But this is the most delicious cornbread, for those of you non-purists who allow for cornbread to be sweet and not made in a generations-old cast iron skillet...

In all honesty, I lucked into this recipe. One of my go-to recipe sites is allrecipes.com. I stumbled across it years ago, when searching for my first ever pumpkin pie recipe, and now refer to it often, though recently as a reference point (ie: to compare with other recipes, or to find out user reviews of different recipes). Anyway, however many years ago it was, I decided one day to try to make cornbread, so entered "cornbread" into the search field at the top of the page. I am not sure how many results came up that day, but, just so you know, when I did it just now, it brought back 188 results. After much browsing, I settled on one. And have never searched for another. I have received rave reviews on this recipe. Unless the need arises for a truly savory cornbread (as I said, this one is a sweet one), then this will be my cornbread recipe for life.

When I made the jam the other day, it was just calling out for cornbread, And since this is really quick to make, I decided to just go ahead and do it. And little miss can practically do this one herself at this point. I mean, if I let her crack eggs... which I have only done a couple of times... Anyway, she measured, stirred, mixed... and that is really the extent of it!

The pretty plain-looking, flat batter is poured into a pan, and a mere 20-25 minutes later, you have this:

Cakey and a little crumbly, and deliciously sweet, this cornbread is so good. Little miss was asking me, pretty much from the second it went into the oven, when she could have a piece. That's how good it is.

Method:1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Spray or lightly grease a 9 inch round cake pan. 2. In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder. Stir in egg, milk and vegetable oil until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pan.3. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.